Giorgio Napolitano donates €30,000 defamation settlement to MEIS Ferrara

Former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has donated €30,000 to the MEIS – National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara, following a defamation lawsuit against Il Giornale director Alessandro Sallusti. The donation concludes a legal case in which the Rome Civil Court found Sallusti liable for defamation through newspaper articles and headlines that used terms such as 'plots,' 'coup,' 'conspiracy,' and 'high treason' against Napolitano. The court ruled these expressions exceeded the limits of fairness and correctness, constituting a personal attack on the former head of state. Napolitano decided to devolve the entire sum to MEIS, described as a place of memory for the historic Jewish presence in Italy, testimony to racial persecutions and the Shoah, and promoter of dialogue among cultures, religions, and traditions. MEIS President Dario Disegni and Director Amedeo Spagnoletto expressed profound gratitude, stating the donation reinforces their sense of responsibility for the museum's mission. MEIS was inaugurated on December 13, 2017, established by the Italian Parliament in 2003 with a unanimous vote. The museum project, five buildings evoking the five books of the Torah covering nearly 8,000 square meters, was designed by a consortium of Studio Arco (Bologna) and -SCAPE S.p.A (Rome), winners of an international public tender in 2011. The Italian Ministry of Culture invested €50 million in the museum.